ICSM Business Membership Group: fighting late and non-payment – Printing Industry Insolvency News including Ashford Press snapped up, major theft of kit before an auction and more firms enter administration

By Harry Mottram: In a dramatic Friday afternoon deal Ashford Colour Press digital business was plucked from administration by Pureprint. The Gosport business had filed a Notice of Intention to Appoint Administrators with Nicholas Simmonds and Christopher Newell of Quantuma Advisory the day before signalling one of the speediest acquisitions in recent times. However, there’s bad news for some of the staff at Ashford as the litho side of the business wasn’t wanted by Pureprint. Print Week – the trade journal for the printing industry – reported that the terms of the deal were not disclosed and there is no word on what the situation is regarding outstanding debts although ICSM understands that all employees had been retained.

 Another print business has been bought out of administration; this time it is Spirit Label Solutions who had appointed administrators from FRP Advisory on 8 November writes Dominic Bernard of Print Week. The Renfrew firm who have specialised in printing labels for whisky firms has been purchased by Spirit Labels, a new company founded by local businessman Craig Hyslop.

Next up is news of an audacious robbery when around £1.3m worth of kit was lifted overnight from the Bilston warehouse of G J Wisdom & Co. valuers and auctioneers. The kit - QC Polymer’s plastic bottle recycling plant had disappeared when on 6 November, Garry Wisdom of G J Wisdom & Co. arrived at the factory to prepare for the pre-auction public viewing. Richard Stuart-Turner for Print Week reported that the premeditated heist showed no signs of a forced entrance to the building.

Joint administrator Howlader said: “This is an extraordinary turn of events following the administration of QC Polymer. To understand the sheer scale of this robbery G J Wisdom & Co. estimated it would have taken seven days to dismantle this plant and a fleet of 10 articulated lorries and two cranes to cart it away. The theft was clearly premeditated [and] pre-planned and the factory building showed no signs of forced entry. The West Midlands Police and the Serious Fraud Squad have been informed and are investigating. The inventory of the equipment that was removed from the site was highly specialist PET recycling machinery with a limited market for its sale and disposal. So, we are asking the industry to be on the lookout for this type of technology, being offered, second-hand, at well below market value.”

Meanwhile a firm begun in 1930 is packing it in. Blackburn’s Modern Bookbinders, will close at the end of the year after 94 years in business, with machinery, customer book and website up for sale. Print Week report: “Everything needs to go,” said managing director and owner Warren Eastwood, whose grandfather founded the business after going into the trade after the First World War. It’s a third generation business, so it is sad – the customers think so, but it’s time for a change. I’ve been here 37 years, and it’s time to do other things.”

The solvent closure has led Eastwood to search for buyers for Modern Bookbinders’ kit, customer list, website, custom tooling and stock. The firm, which specialises in magazine and loose binders, and record of achievement folders for schools, has many repeat customers, according to Eastwood.

Finally, Richard Stuart-Turner reported in Print Week that the family-run print company Northwolds Richardson Group, formed last year following the merger of North Wolds Printers and Wood Richardson, has gone into administration. According to filings on The Gazette, Phil Clark and Dave Clark of Clark Business Recovery were appointed joint administrators of Northwolds Richardson Group Ltd. The fate of the company, the reasons behind its move into administration, and its current trading status were all unclear at the time of writing reports the industry journalist.

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